As future generals for the Federal Army during the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant and Philip Sheridan are also remembered for their service in the Pacific Northwest during the 1850’s.  Another, George Brinton McClellan made a cameo appearance. He led a group tasked with identifying a possible rail route through the Cascades.  In addition, they potential were to build a military road across the mountain chain so emigrant wagons could more easily reach the Puget Sound of Washington Territory.  This reconnaissance gave McClellan his first extended period of independent command since graduating from West Point with the Class of 1846.

Before George McClellan became the leading Federal general in the early Civil War, he served in the wilds of Washington, surveying for railroad routes.